


The Hanged Man's Prodigal Son

by misura



Category: The Death of the Necromancer - Martha Wells
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 18:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arisilde, on the brink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hanged Man's Prodigal Son

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pentapus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/gifts).



> I think I should very much have liked to write a fic about Ari opening up a can of whoopass on someone, but that didn't happen today, so have a treat about a time when he didn't, instead?
> 
> (pre-canon, at Lodun)

For one brief moment, he can feel the fate of Lodun lying in the cup of his hand - more of an effort to preserve it than it would be to let go, to permit it to shatter, as irreparably broken as Edouard's life.

 _Ants,_ he thinks. _Vermin._

(The second may apply to some; the first, to more of them, if not to all - and who is he, after all, to judge, to _act_ and damn, now that it is too late to forgive, to save, to _understand_.)

He lowers his hand and allows the sounds, the feelings of the world around him to resume.

Allows himself to grieve for all that has been lost.


End file.
